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In fact, as early as 1975, Macau was offered to be returned to China by Portugal, but China categorically refused and did not recover until 1999!
This is strange, Macao's return to the motherland is sure to be as early as possible, but why did the mainland choose to flatly reject the opportunity to return to the door? Why is Portugal suddenly so sensible that it takes the initiative to return Macao to China?
Actually, it's because Portugal was slapped in the face twice, so I learned to be obedient.
Portugal and Macau
Since China's return to the United Nations in 1971, our international voice has become weighty.
It didn't take long for Portugal to come to the door, expressing the hope that it could establish diplomatic relations with China by resolving the Macao issue earlier.
However, after learning of the conditions proposed by Macau, Premier Zhou frowned and chose to decisively refuse.
Two years later, the unwilling Portugal again sought negotiations with the Chinese government, and in order to show their sincerity, they even took the initiative to withdraw the Portuguese troops stationed in Australia.
But in the end, Deng Gong only rejected Portugal with four words, that is, "wishful thinking"!
So, what kind of excessive demands did Portugal make that the two leaders of the mainland chose to refuse one after another?
Let's start with the first negotiations in 1975, when Portugal was in a rather difficult situation.
Portugal, the old capitalist of the former maritime hegemon, has long been in decline, and its position has been replaced by a series of new capitalist countries such as the United States, Britain and France.
Especially after World War II, colonies all over the world have set off vigorous independence movements, and the few colonies in the hands of Portugal are naturally no exception.
And it was not only the Portuguese colonies that were going to rebel, but also the people of Portugal.
Because the Portuguese people were quite dissatisfied with the government's desire to increase taxes and arrest strong men in order to suppress the colonial independence movement, they rose up and took to the streets to demonstrate with carnations instead of weapons, and this is the famous "Carnation Revolution", known as the most gentle coup d'état in the history of the world.
The original Portuguese government, unable to cope with the mighty Carnation Revolution, soon collapsed and a new government was established in 1974.
Since it is a new government, it is natural to show that it is different from the previous dictatorial government and colonial rule, but to show an attitude of democracy and peace.
And more importantly, the newly established Portuguese government is still following the socialist road, so it can be regarded as our comrades!
Since we are comrades, Portugal naturally wants to learn from the old Chinese comrades who have more experience in socialism and establish diplomatic relations with China, so that we can give full play to the spirit of the socialist international and consolidate our socialist camp.
However, the non-return of Macau is clearly the biggest obstacle to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Portugal and China.
This is because from the very beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has stipulated that all countries that have established diplomatic relations with China must recognize Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan as China's inherent territory and return all the Chinese territories invaded and occupied during the old China period.
The reason why Macao fell into the hands of Portugal can even be traced back to the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.
At that time, Portugal was at its peak, and its desire to plunder the colonies was unprecedentedly inflated, so after Portugal discovered Macao, it began to try its best to plunder Macao into its own pocket, and did not hesitate to stage a porcelain encounter for this purpose.
I saw that after the Portuguese fleet came to Macao, it lied that its cargo was wet by the sea, and wanted to find a place to dry the goods, and began to rely on it in Macao on this ground.
For this reason, Portugal even did not hesitate to bribe local officials in Macau, so that local officials turned a blind eye to them.
Therefore, under the betrayal of local officials, Portugal soon obtained the right to trade in the Macao wharf, and took advantage of the chaotic opportunity of the change of power in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and directly occupied the whole of Macao with lightning speed.
Although the Qing Dynasty did not recognize Portuguese rule over Macau, the Qing Dynasty was too remote to reach it.
After the Opium War in 1887, seeing that the late Qing Dynasty was so vulnerable, Portugal also took advantage of the fire to rob and forced the Qing Dynasty to recognize Portugal's domination of Macao, and also wrote the overlord clause of "Portugal will always govern Macao", forcing the Qing government to sign, which was simply a naked burglary.
Macau's return
Even in 1975, the Portuguese Republic, out of the establishment of diplomatic relations with China, took the initiative to return Macao, but it did not show enough sincerity.
Because although Macao promised to return Macao in advance, it put forward such additional conditions:
That is, to recognize Macao as a Portuguese colony! and to demand that Portugal retain a certain degree of autonomy in Macao.
In the Portuguese conception, it was they who gave the colonies the right to decide for themselves their own future, and the colonies had the right to return to their homeland and achieve independence, but they also had the right to choose to become an autonomous territory of Portugal.
Therefore, Portugal believes that since it has chosen to take the initiative to return Macao, then as compensation, China should also retain some of Portugal's rights in Macao.
In the face of Portugal's unreasonable demands, Premier Zhou naturally resolutely refused.
Because Macao is an inherent territory of the mainland, Portugal is not entitled to any autonomy in Macao.
What's more, Macao has been occupied by Portugal for so long, and it stands to reason that Portugal has already made a lot of money, but Portugal is still greedily demanding the so-called "autonomy", which is really stretching its hand too long and has no sincerity at all.
Moreover, New China has also clearly declared that it will abolish any unequal treaties signed by the old China with the foreign powers, nor will it recognize any colonies occupied by the foreign powers.
Seeing the failure of the first negotiation, Macau did not give up, and two years later again sought to negotiate with China, and in good faith, it took the initiative to withdraw Macao's troops.
However, it turned out that the so-called sincerity was not at all good, because during the negotiation process, Portugal still insisted on retaining the autonomy of Macau.
Deng Gong said: "Wishful thinking! Once Macao is returned, Portugal must completely sever its relations with Macao, and the Chinese Government will unswervingly and persistently defend Macao's integrity and sovereignty as China's territory!"
Portugal never imagined that today's China would be so tough, completely different from the submissive Qing Dynasty hundreds of years ago, so it had to go home in disgrace.
In 1979, seeing China's reform and opening up, Portugal once again became greedy for China's huge market, realizing that improving relations with China could bring great benefits to Portugal's economic development.
Portugal once again opened negotiations with China, but the problem was never resolved because Portugal had been avoiding the most important and trivial.
It was not until three years later, when Margaret Thatcher of Britain took the initiative to visit China to discuss the Hong Kong issue with China, without taking any advantage, and even fell at the door of the Great Hall of the People in despair, that Portugal realized the seriousness of the matter, so there were signs of relenting.
After all, even Britain has no advantage on the Hong Kong issue, let alone Portugal? Moreover, Portugal is becoming more and more aware that after the reform and opening up, China is becoming more and more prosperous and powerful, but Portugal has gradually become a third-rate country, so it is not China that needs to look at Portugal's face, but Portugal needs to look at China's face!
Finally, in 1987, China and Portugal finally reached an agreement and signed a joint declaration declaring the Macao area to be Chinese territory.
Since then, China and Portugal have entered a transitional period of political transfer, and began to implement the "three modernizations" measures in Macao, namely the legalization of Chinese, the legalization of civil servants and the localization of laws, and finally gradually transitioned to 1999, after everything was ready, Macao finally returned to the embrace of the motherland!
To this day, Macao is still the "most well-behaved child" in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and it is more worry-free in many ways.
The reason why Macao is so worry-free is largely because Portugal has been more active in the matter of returning Macao.
Although the negotiation process was not pleasant, Portugal's willingness to return it was commendable.
The reason why Portugal is so active is not because of how high their ideological consciousness is, but because they have been hurt too deeply and slapped in the face many times on the road to the collapse of the colonial system, so that they have left a serious psychological shadow.
Twice slapped in the face
It is known that in 1947 India managed to gain independence from the British colonialists.
What is less well known is that India actually achieved full independence in 1961.
Because India is not a colony of Britain, France and Portugal also have their own colonies in India.
The French Indian colonies and the Portuguese Indian colonies did not become independent with the British colonies, so the Indian government has always been committed to negotiating with these two countries in the hope of recovering the occupied territories as soon as possible.
India's negotiations with France went smoothly and were resolved in a few moments, except for the negotiations with Portugal, which were greatly hampered.
Because the Portuguese government at that time was a dictatorship, and its attitude towards the colonies was quite strong, that is, a colony would not be abandoned, and Portugal at that time joined NATO and had the protection of its allies as a confidence, which led to the negotiations between India and Portugal, which always had only the slightest substantial progress.
Portugal even went so far as to be angry and openly declare that the Indian colony it had invaded was its overseas province.
In this way, it is equivalent to directly forcibly incorporating India's territory into its own territory.
This radical move undoubtedly annoyed the Indian Government to a great extent, and the Indian people in the so-called "overseas provinces" were also quite unconvinced, and rose up one after another to oppose the colonial rule of Portugal.
In a conflict between the two sides, the Portuguese military and police accidentally killed several Indian fishermen, which directly ignited the anger of the Indian government.
Portugal originally hoped that the big brother of the United States could support itself, but who expected that the United States at this time was trying to win over India, and it turned out that Portugal overestimated its position in the hearts of the United States, so the matter could only end without a problem.
And this is the first slap in the face story of Portugal's forcible occupation of the colony.
After the establishment of a new government in Portugal, although Portugal announced that the colonies could hold a referendum, and decided for itself whether to choose to return, stay in Portugal, or choose independence, there were still one slap in the face one after another.
At that time, Portugal's colonies in Asia included East Timor in addition to Macau.
At the time of the referendum, there was infighting in East Timor, and there were forces that chose the three paths, and they were comparable in strength, and no one could convince anyone, so civil war was on the verge of breaking out.
At this time, Portugal, as the suzerain, had the obligation to mediate the civil war in East Timor, but who expected that at this time, Indonesia took the lead in intervening in the civil war in East Timor, and directly annexed the sovereignty of East Timor, slapping Portugal in the face.
Moreover, because East Timor had not yet declared independence from Portugal at that time, Portugal still enjoyed the sovereignty of East Timor, and Indonesia's move was undoubtedly tantamount to attacking Portugal.
So Portugal broke off diplomatic relations with Indonesia in a fit of rage, and sued Indonesia in an international court, protesting one after another.
However, because Portugal is too weak and soft-spoken, his protests have not been taken seriously and have been largely ignored.
It is precisely based on these two slap incidents that Portugal has become more and more aware of the reality that it has been reduced to a small transparent, and it is no longer qualified to control these overseas colonies, so it is better to take the initiative to return the colonies to lay a good international relationship for itself.
It is precisely because of this that they will take the initiative to return Macao to China.
However, it is worth noting that after China and Portugal signed a treaty and agreed to return Macao, many people in the Portuguese government also raised objections, hoping that the return of Macao could be delayed for a little longer.
Because the Portuguese government at that time was able to make huge profits from Macau's gaming industry every year, they were naturally unwilling to give up such a piece of fat, so they tried their best to delay it again and again.
In this regard, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: Any attempt to delay the return of Macao to the year 2000 is unacceptable!
Sure enough, as soon as we urged the threat, Portugal was still so frightened that it hurriedly returned Macao on the eve of 2000.